The present invention relates to the positioning of fiber optic elemnts and waveguides with respect to a position in a precisely defined locality; any requirements in this regard usually being the more stringent the larger such an optical system is.
Usually mechanically operating piezoelectric, electromechanical or electromagnetical devices are used for adjusting the position particularly of the end windows of an optical wave guide and of light conductive elements (fiber optics) in general. All these methods have in common that the optical waveguide element and light conducting fiber is coupled mechanically to a moving mechanism. Therefore the mechanical properties of that mechanism determine the accuracy characteristics and so forth of adjustment. This principle holds true also for modulation devices as shown in German patent 28 39 444. A different field of art is concerned with electrical positioning by way of scanning of a fiber optic end vis-a-vis a relatively large plate (see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,788). This patent has nothing to do with an accurate positioning, only with scanning of movement.